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For Canada, it’s out with the old, in with the new in Rio

Familiar faces from four summers ago in London will be absent in equestrian, triathlon, boxing and track events at the Rio Games in August.

Ian Millar, the 69-year-old equestrian veteran, was all set to attend his 11th Olympics. But in the sport of jumping it takes two, and his best horse Dixson is still recovering from sinus surgery so it's no Rio for Millar. (Derek Leung / GETTY IMAGES)

For the first time in more than four decades, Ian Millar won’t be on Canada’s Olympic equestrian team.

The 69-year-old was all set to attend his 11th Olympics. But in the sport of jumping it takes two, and his best horse Dixson is still recovering from sinus surgery. Millar, who holds the international record for most Olympic appearances of any athlete in any sport, will have to be content with heading to Rio as a proud father and fan. His 39-year-old daughter Amy — who wasn’t even born when Millar competed the first time at the 1972 Munich Games — was named to her first Olympic team on Thursday.

And it’s not just the equestrian team where well-known faces from four years ago in London will be replaced by newcomers in Rio:

Triathlon

The two names most Canadians associate with the sport of triathlon — Simon Whitfield and Paula Findlay — won’t be in Rio.

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Whitfield, the sport’s first Olympic champion from 2000 Sydney and runner-up in 2008 Beijing, crashed in the bike portion of the London event, and he retired in 2013.

Canada’s sprint relay team of Gavin Smellie, Oluseyi Smith, Jared Connaughton and Justyn Warner went from elation to devastation and tears in a matter of minutes four summers ago. They crossed the line in third place but were disqualified because Connaughton stepped outside his lane. He retired in 2014, and the other three failed to make the team at the Olympic trials in Edmonton last weekend.

For Rio, the new faces include Andre De Grasse and Aaron Brown — Canada’s sub-10 second men — Brendon Rodney, the newly minted 200-metre star with a sub-20 second time, and Akeem Haynes.

Swimming

When Brent Hayden won bronze in the 100-metre freestyle at the 2012 Olympics his relief was almost as effusive as his joy. He was 29 years old and London was his third Olympics. The sprint swimmer, once the fastest in the world, knew this was his last chance to finally win an Olympic medal.

Hayden’s medal was Canada’s first-ever in that distance but come Rio, Santo Condorelli, the 21-year-old who has already posted world-class times, is hoping to make it two.

Shot Put

So much has happened to Dylan Armstrong since the London Olympics it’s hard to know where to start: marriage, belated medal, surgery.

He married Evgeniia Kolodko, the Russian shot put silver medallist who recently was named as one of the athletes whose retested London samples came back positive. Armstrong was then finally awarded his own Olympic medal — bronze from 2008 Beijing — after the man ahead of him was caught doping. And if all that weren’t enough, he also had elbow surgery early in 2015. He hasn’t returned to competition since, so it’s Tim Nedow, of Brockville, Ont., who heads to Rio.

Soccer

The Canadian women won bronze in London but the real emotional wringer for the nation came one game earlier in the semi-final against the Americans. Canada was leading 3-2 when the referee called goalkeeper Erin McLeod for holding the ball for more than six-seconds. A rule ew had ever heard of ultimately resulted in a penalty kick for the Americans, who tied the game and went on to win in extra time.

Mary Spencer was the face of boxing, quite literally, leading into London, the debut for women in this sport. She was on all the Canadian Olympic billboards and signed a makeup deal with CoverGirl. She lost her first match in the Olympic ring and was out before the medal rounds. She’s never made it back to Canada’s top spot let alone medal contention internationally.

Ariane Fortin — a former friend-turned-rival of Spencer’s by being forced into the same Olympic weight class — now heads to Rio as Canada’s medal hope in the 75-kg class.

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